Open source Learning Management Systems have become extremely popular in recent years, but what does open source mean? Open Source technology is technology where the source code is “open”, that is, the code is available to the public and free to be modified. Improvements can be made by developers and it can be spread or sold to the wider community. So, why should an organization choose an open source Learning Management System as opposed to a homegrown or proprietary Learning Management System?

In my test of the Fedora 18 Alpha release, I was left thinking the "connect to server" feature in the Nautilus file manager disappeared in versions 3.5.x and 3.6.x of the GNOME desktop environment. Thanks to readers, I learned that "connect to server" has moved to a separate application that you call from the shell with the not-so-friendly name "Nautilus-connect-server."

Says explosion of smartphone patent litigation is "natural and reasonable." David Kappos, the head of the United States Patent and Trademark Office, offered a strong defense of software patents in a Tuesday address at the Center for American Progress. Kappos touted several provisions of the America Invents Act (AIA), which he argued would allow the patent office to weed out low-quality software and business method patents. Addressing those who claim the patent system is broken, Kappos said, "Give it a rest already. Give the AIA a chance to work. Give it a chance to even get started."

While this week marks one year since the Doom 3 (id Tech 4) game engine was open-sourced under the GPL, there still isn't too much adoption by open-source game developers. The few forks of the id Tech 4 code-base also aren't seeing frequent activity...

One of the biggest talking points in the run-up to the release of Windows 8 has been the feature that will supposedly lock down the operating system so that it cannot be infected by malware at boot-time.

Standard releases aren't terribly different from the bi-annual LTS products, though they tend to be slightly less conservative in code offerings. The Ubuntu development community lets off the brakes a little and sticks some shiny back in.Ubuntu 12.10 is no exception, so make no mistake—there's some shiny goodness in this release. We'll get into what makes this a decent desktop and even more decent server release. But there's a little tarnish mixed in, too, and that makes Ubuntu 12.10 less special than previous editions.

Another interesting session from this month's LLVM Developers' Meeting in San Jose was about how Google manages to collect and utilize Clang diagnostics internally for software they develop at the company...

The team is proud to announce the release of Linux Mint 14 'Nadia'. For the first time since Linux Mint 11, the development team was able to capitalize on upstream technology which works and fits its goals. After 6 months of incremental development, Linux Mint 14 features an impressive list of improvements, increased stability and a refined desktop experience. We're very proud of MATE, Cinnamon, MDM and all the components used in this release, and we're very excited to show you how they all fit together in Linux Mint 14. Screenshots of Linux Mint 14 with [url=http://chrishaney.com/?linux&release=Linux%20Mint%2014%20MATE]MATE[/url] is also available.

Which gadget are you most thankful for? Smart phone Laptop Tablet E-reader Other (tell us in the comments) It's that time of year when everyone pauses to be thankful. At opensource.com, we want to know which gadget you're MOST thankful for. Which device could you not survive without? Personally I know I'm 100% attached to my smart phone. So you know my vote.

A previously unknown rootkit is infecting Linux web servers and injecting malicious code into web pages served by infected servers. The rootkit was discovered by a user of security mailing list Full Disclosure, who has posted his observations, including the suspicious kernel module, to the mailing list. The malware adds an iframe to every web page served by the infected system via the nginx proxy – including error pages.

That’s less than 10 days after the first Release Candidate was announced. What type of testing does this thing get? By the way, that’s normal for Linux Mint distribution, but again, how well is this distribution tested before it’s released to the public?

The Linux Foundation will be featuring some of those who have recently passed the certification examinations. These testimonials should serve to help you decide if either the Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator (LFCS) or the Linux Foundation Certified Engineer (LFCE) certification is right for you.

SANITY WARNING: Please don't read this article unless you're a compulsive shell scripter, like me. Seriously. There are some excellent FOSS sequence viewers in the distro repositories, with great GUIs and lots of features. Why would you want to build a less capable viewer that only works in a terminal?Still with me? OK, the script explained here is called 'DNA' and relies on up-to-date GNU utilities (e.g. GNU AWK) and BASH...

As a recruiter working in the open source world, I love that I interact every day with some of the smartest people around. I get to hear about the cool projects they're working on and what they think about the industry, and when they are ready for a new challenge. I get to connect them to companies that are quietly changing the world.read more